Now in Paperback
AVID READER PRESS
(SIMON & SCHUSTER)
EVENTS / ORDER Mouth to Mouth / MEDIA Q&A
Mouth to Mouth:
A successful art dealer confesses the story of his rise to a former classmate in an airport bar – a story that begins with his rescue and resuscitation of a drowning man, with whom he will become inextricably linked, to disturbing ends.
With Highsmithian undertones and propulsive pacing, Mouth to Mouth raises big questions—about accountability, identity, morality and fate—in a story both profound and compulsively readable.
Praise for Mouth to Mouth:
FEATURED ON BARACK OBAMA’S SUMMER READING LIST
FINALIST FOR THE PRIX FITZGERALD
LONGLISTED FOR THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE CALIBA GOLDEN POPPY AWARD
A Los Angeles Times BESTSELLER
A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF 2022
A Vogue BEST BOOK of 2022
AN Esquire BEST BOOK of 2022
A NPR BEST BOOK of 2022
A CBC BEST BOOK of 2022
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NEWS GROUP’S 10 NOTEWORTHY BOOKS OF 2022
“[An] enthralling literary puzzle… Wilson is a gorgeous writer, pulling you in and compelling you to keep reading. The story, and the story-within-the-story — the twists and turns, the attention lavished on motivation and emotion, the efforts to rationalize or at least explain strange or unsavory behavior — recall the cool prose of Paul Auster… This powerful, intoxicating book’s greatest tension is that we have no idea where it is heading, right up to the shocking final sentence.”
Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
“propulsive, slim, and inventive… Mouth to Mouth [is a] Russian doll of a novel.”
Sloane Crosley, Departures
“Incredibly taut, with funny and brilliantly described scenes of the Los Angeles art world.”—Keziah Weir, Vanity Fair
“[A] taut, compulsive chamber piece of a novel, which you’ll struggle not to rip through in one sitting… Mouth to Mouth is an elegantly told and supremely gripping tale of serendipity and deception—and delivers a brilliant ending that will leave you guessing about everything that came before.”
Vogue
“A taut, heady thriller”
Los Angeles Times
“Wilson is a first-rate yarn spinner… [a] sly and energetic novel.”
Washington Post
“Psychologically complex and suspenseful until the literal last sentence, it uses every word of its 200 or so pages to the fullest.”
NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour
“Wilson writes a compulsively readable narrative up to the very end.”
Los Angeles Daily News
“A little bomb of a novel”
GateCrashers
“A Gen-X Greek revenge fantasy”
Washington Independent Review of Books
“Compelling”
The Toronto Star
“A storytelling triumph… this novel is intentional, focused and expertly delivered. Wilson captures the reader’s attention from the beginning and holds it all the way to the end.”
Michigan Daily
“I myself loved this riveting and smart novel. And: the perfect ending will make you gasp.”
Edan Lepucki, The Millions
“A gloriously addicting tale of decisions and deception… Wilson’s ending delivers.”
BuzzFeed Books
“Tightly coiled… Mouth to Mouth delivers a tidy story that also will make readers wonder how much of Jeff’s story is true and how much is just a good yarn.”
The Sun Sentinel
“a carefully sculpted masterpiece… Mouth to Mouth provokes deep philosophical questions about the nature of truth and fiction.”
Powell’s Books
“[A] roller-coaster ride of a novel.”
Alta Online
“Reminiscent of the cult classic film ‘My Dinner with Andre’… Antoine Wilson’s slyly disturbing and shrewd novel presents two college acquaintances who unexpectedly cross paths at an airport almost 20 years later…. Stopping isn’t an option: that final sentence rewards readers with a didn’t-see-that-coming gut punch.”
Shelf Awareness
“[A] propulsive… page-turner… A deliciously nasty morality play in the guise of a thriller.”
Kirkus Reviews
“Wilson’s Mouth To Mouth is the best book I’ve read in ages. Narratively ingenious, delicately written, intriguingly plotted, it is literature of the highest quality. I see you now, dear Reader, with this novel in your hand and already losing track of time….”
Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less
“Antoine Wilson has written a spellbinding novel of laserlike insight and exquisite technique that reveals how stories can function to conceal other stories. I read this book in one rapturous sitting, jotting down line after line, riveted until the final shocking, clarifying sentence.”
Sarah Manguso, author of Ongoingness and 300 Arguments
“Antoine Wilson’s Mouth to Mouth is sleek, swift, and graceful, an agile novel of ideas with unexpectedly sharp teeth.”
Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies and Matrix
“The sinewy and mesmerizing narrative of Antoine Wilson’s masterful novel aims straight at the heart of the mythologized self, which, like the world of art and commerce that provides the story’s backdrop, trades in all forms of performance and deception. Not unlike the novel itself, which asks us to believe and doubt and then believe again within the space of a single sentence. Wilson’s on a high wire and he never makes a wrong move.”
Marisa Silver, author of Little Nothing and The Mysteries
“Compulsively readable. This austere and addictive novel interrogates the very nature of identity, destiny and storytelling.”
Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Orphan Master’s Son
“Antoine Wilson has written a stunner of a novel. Mouth to Mouth shook and thrilled me from the first page to the last.”
Daniel Alarcón, author of The King is Always Above the People and At Night We Walk in Circles
“A fascinating contemporary twist on the classic ‘as told to’ novel, Mouth To Mouth strands two old accquaintances in an airport VIP lounge, where we are alternately charmed and alarmed by a fantastic tale of love, fate and a meteoric rise in the art world. Mesmerizing.”
Janet Fitch, author of Chimes of a Lost Cathedral and Paint It Black.
“Mouth to Mouth is that rarity, a perfect narrative machine, working by its own laws. The cool nervous clarity of the prose enmeshes the reader in a trap of complicity, one snapping shut on narrator and reader at the same instant. Bravo.”
Jonathan Lethem, author of The Arrest and The Feral Detective.